What Was It Like At Apple Leading Up To The Original iPhone Release?

The New York Times has published a fantastic article that takes a look behind the scenes at Apple leading up to the the original iPhone announcement. Andy Grignon, a senior engineer at Apple, and the man in charge of ensure that the phone actually worked like a phone, takes us through the moments leading up to the announcement and the fun times that followed it.

Grignon, like everyone else at rehearsals, knew that if those glitches showed up during the real presentation, Jobs would not be blaming himself for the problems. “It felt like we’d gone through the demo a hundred times, and each time something went wrong,” Grignon says. “It wasn’t a good feeling.”

We always go on and on about how the competition always seems to announce and release products before they’re ready to ship, but for the first time, Grignon makes it pretty obvious just how precarious the keynote was leading up to the final moments before the lights would dim and Steve Jobs would take the stage. The audience, press, and fans always see a keynote go off without a hitch, but the reality is that it’s held together because of a tremendous dedication to perfection leading up to the keynote.